Current Situation and Future Trend of Meat Processing Technology in China
ZHANG Dequan, HUI Teng, WANG Zhenyu
Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Abstract：China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of meat. In 2018, China’s total output of meat was 86.24 million tons, accounting for about one third of the world’s total. Over the past 70 years from 1949 to 2019, China has eliminated backward production capacity by introducing advanced technology from western countries. Furthermore, China itself has developed novel technologies for Chinese traditional meat products, going through several stages from frozen meat to high-temperature meat products, chilled meat, low-temperature meat products, industrial processing of traditional meat products and nutritious meat products processing, and has made a considerable progress in quality improvement, nutritional maintenance, standardized processing, quality and safety control, green manufacturing, and key generic technologies. At present, the demand of Chinese people for meat consumption has changed rapidly from food security to food safety and then to food nutrition and human health and as a consequence, a new meat industry covering the whole supply chain has been preliminarily established, which is oriented by market demand, focuses on preservation, logistics and processing after slaughter of livestock and poultry, and is supported by relevant services. Based on the current situation and future requirements of meat processing industry in the country, new trends of meat processing technology are emerging in intelligent slaughter and segmentation, smart distribution and preservation of fresh meat, echelon and green manufacturing of meat products, high value utilization of co-products, meat quality and safety, meat nutrition and human health. This article summarizes the current situation of meat processing and meat science in China, existing problems in meat processing industry and meat processing technology trends, and puts forward some suggestions for the development of meat processing in the country in the next 30 years.
2020, Vol. 34 
